Consumer Behavior

Towards Fast Food

Industry, HARDEES

CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
Consumer behavioris the study of when, why, how, and where people
do or do not buy aproduct. It blends elements frompsychology,sociology,
socialanthropologyandeconomics. It attempts to understand the buyer
decision making process, both individually and in groups. It studies
characteristics of individual consumers such asdemographicsand
behavioral variables in an attempt to understand people's wants. It also
tries to assess influences on theconsumerfrom groups such as family,
friends, reference groups, and society in general.
Customer behavior study is based on consumer buying behavior, with the
customer playing the three distinct roles of user, payer and buyer.
Relationship marketingis an influential asset for customer behavior
analysis as it has a keen interest in the re-discovery of the true meaning of
marketing through the re-affirmation of the importance of the customer or
buyer. A greater importance is also placed on consumer retention,
customer relationship management, personalization, customization and
one-to-one marketing.

 Behavior occurs either for the individual, or in the context of a group

(e.g., friends influence what kinds of clothes a person wears) or an
organization (people on the job make decisions as to which products
the firm should use).
Consumer behavior involves the use and disposal of products as well
as the study of how they are purchased. Product use is often of great
interest to the marketer, because this may influence how a product is
best positioned or how we can encourage increased consumption.
Since many environmental problems result from product disposal
(e.g., motor oil being sent into sewage systems to save the recycling
fee, or garbage piling up at landfills) this is also an area of interest.
Consumer behavior involves services and ideas as well as tangible
products.
The impact of consumer behavior on society is also of relevance. For
example, aggressive marketing of high fat foods, or aggressive
marketing of easy credit, may have serious repercussions for the
national health and economy.

 Buyer Behavior

Marketing Stimuli

Other Stimuli

 Buyer Characteristics
Cultural

Social

Personal

Buyers Decision Process

Problem
Recognition
Purchase
Decision

Information
Search
Consumption

Psychologica
l

Evaluation of
Alternatives
Post-purchase
behavior

Buyers Decision
Product
Brand Choice
Dealer Choice
Choice
Purchase Timing
Purchase Amount

 Cultural Factors
Culture

Sub culture

Social Class

Social Factors
Reference
Groups

Family

Roles and
Status

Personal Factors
Family Life Cycle

Occupation and
Economic
circumstances
Personality and self
concept

Lifestyle
Psychological
Factors
Motivatio
n

Perceptio
n

Learning

Beliefs &
Attitude

 Buying Roles
Initiator

Influenc
er

Decider

Buyer

User

Buying Behavior
Compl
ex

Dissonance Reducing

Buying Process

Habit
ual

Problem Recognition
Evaluation Alternatives

Variety
seeking

Information Search
Purchase Decision

Post - Purchase Behavior

Satisfaction

Actions

Use and
Disposal

FAST FOOD INDUSTRY

Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and
served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time
can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to
food sold in a restaurant or store with low quality preparation
and served to the customer in a packaged form for
take-out/take-away. The term "fast food" was recognized in a
dictionary by MerriamWebster in 1951.
Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter
or seating, or fast food restaurants (also known as quick
service restaurants). Franchise operations which are part of
restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to
each restaurant from central locations for example like KFC,
McDonald, Pizza Hut, Hardees and Burger King and so on.

The Start of Fast Food Culture

The concept of fast food pops up during
1920s.The 1950s first witnessed their rapid
proliferation. Several factors that contributed to
this explosive growth in 50s were:

(1) Americas love affair with the automobiles.

(2) The construction of a major new highway
system.
(3) The development of sub-urban communities.
(4) The baby boom subsequent to world war
second.

In 2006, the global fast food market grew by

4.8% and reached a value of 102.4 billion and
a volume of 80.3 billion transactions. In India
alone the fast food industry is growing by 40%
a year. McDonald's is located in 120 countries
and on 6 continents and operates over 31,000
restaurants worldwide.
KFC is located in 25 countries. Subway has
29,186 restaurants located in 86 countries,
Pizza Hut is located in 26 countries, Taco Bell
has 278 restaurants located in 12 countries
besides the United States.

REASON FOR EMERGENCE

Gender Roles
Gender roles are now changing. Females have started working outside. So,
they have no time for their home and cooking food. Fast food is an easy
way out because these can be prepared easily.
Customer Sophistication and Confidence
Consumers are becoming more sophisticated now. They do not want to
prepare food and spend their time and energy in house hold works. They
are building their confidence more on ready to eat and easy to serve kind
of foods.

Paucity of Time
People have no time for cooking. Because of emergence of working women
and also number of other entertainment items. Most of the time either
people work or want to enjoy with their family.

Double Income Group

Emergence of double income group leads to increase in disposable income. Now
people have more disposable income so they can spend easily in fast food and other
activities.

Working Women
Working women have no time for cooking, and if they have then also they dont want
to cook. Because they want to come out of the traditionally defined gender roles. They
do not want to confine themselves to household work and upbringing of childrens.

Large Population
Pakistan in terms of population possesses large potential market for all the
products/services. This results into entry of large number of fast food players in the
country.

Relaxation in rules and regulations

With the economic liberalization of 1991, most of the tariff and non tariff barriers from
the Indian boundaries are either removed or minimized. This helped significantly the
MNCs to enter in the country.
Menu diversification
Increase in consumption of pizzas, burgers and other type of fast foods.

The success of fast foods arose from the changes

in our living conditions:
Many women or both parents now work
There are increased numbers of single-parent
households
Long distances to school and work are common
Usually, lunch times are short
There's often not enough time or opportunity to
shop carefully for groceries, or to cook and eat
with one's family. Especially on weekdays, fast
food outside the home is the only solution.

Hardees
Headquartered in Carpentaria, Calif.,
CKE Restaurants, Inc. is publicly traded
on the New York Stock Exchange under
the symbol CKR. As of the end of its
fiscal 2010 second quarter, CKE
Restaurants, Inc., through its
subsidiaries, had a total of 3,140
franchised, licensed or companyoperated restaurants in 42 states and
in 14 countries, including 1,212 Carls

A subsidiary ofCKE Restaurants,Hardee'sis a fast food

chain located primarily in the Eastern and Southeastern
United States. Along with its West Coast sibling,Carl's Jr.,
Hardee'sis the fourth largest fast food chain in theU.S.
Currently, CKE franchises 338 international restaurants
between both its Carls Jr. and Hardees brands. The
company has strategic development plans to double its
International presence within the next five years.
The initial response and reviews have been very
welcoming. People are satisfied with the quality standards
and the price structures. A must try out this is. At least
now you dont have to eat the day-old deliveries of the
competitors. Because when Hardees is here, this is going
to be an ultimate competition.

 Mission Statement
To be an innovated, profitable growth company committed to 100%
customer satisfaction by providing high quality food, a positive dining
experience delivered by an outstanding team.

Values:

Quality
A Priority on Restaurant Fundamentals
Our People Take Pride In What They Do
Quality Ingredients Make A Difference
Innovation
Our Products are Unmatched
Thinking Outside The Box
Technological Advances
Continuous Improvement
We Must Continue To Excel In Restaurant Fundamentals
We Must Remain Relevant To Our Customers
We Must Manage our Business Profitably
We Have An Opportunity To Positively Impact Our Community

Marketing Mix
As we know that the marketing mix is the combination of
four things.
Hardees blends all these four Ps of marketing mix in
very organized manners, which helps the organization in
satisfying the customers demand as well as achieving
the mission of the organization.
Combinations of that marketing mix are:
Product.
Pricing Structure.
Place / Distribution system.
Promotional activities

 PRODUCT:
Product means the goods and services
combination the company offers to the
target market.

Their all products are different from each

other they change their products by
introducing new products.
Hardees have created the differentiation by
providing people with the new varieties of
fast food in the market.

 PRICE:
It is the amount of money customers have to pay to obtain the
product.
More broadly, price is the sum of all the values that consumers
exchange for benefits of having or using the product or services.
Pricing of the Hardees products are especially for the insensitive
consumers; those consumers or the customers who does not
bother about the high prices and they can pay for the product at
any rate the product is selling out.
Market skimming pricing is being used by Hardees which means
setting a high price for a new product to skim maximum revenues
layer by layer from the segments willing to pay the high price; the
company makes fewer but more profitable sales.

 PLACE
Place includes company activities that make the product available
to target consumers.
Hardees use to occupy places at very busy areas to establish its
store/outlet in order to attract lots of customers.

PROMOTION:
Promotion means activities that communicate merits of the products and
persuade target customers to buy it.
The element in an organizations marketing mix that serves to inform, persuade
and remind the market of a product and/or the organization selling it in the
hope of influencing the recipients feelings, beliefs, or behavior.
The policy of Hardees is that to adopt the same methods to promote all its
products.
Hardees have used both print media and electronic media as well. It is giving its
promotional ads on television and radio. It has also used the brochures to come
on the main front.
It has also used the newspaper ads to capture more people and market share.

 People
Workforce at Hardees is selected after the detailed structured
interviews as mentioned before to make the customer friendly
people. Right people are selected for the right job at Hardees.
Training is the crucial part of the job of a person. Hardees
organize the training and development seminars for its people
in Dubai and in Lahore. According to the perception in the
minds of the customers about Hardees workforce they are
quite friendly and helping.

Process
Service delivery system at Hardees is extremely efficient and
innovative. It was difficult to be accepted by the people
because of its uniqueness but people liked this.

Physical Evidence
Environment of Hardees is beyond the customer expectations
which has made the customer delight. It is quite neat and
clean and a very friendly kind of atmosphere.
A good effect is created and affected right at time when a
person enters into the restaurant by the music they play. The
blend of many colors also gives a good look to the

 Monitor & Control

To monitor the day to day and short and long term objectives
Hardees rely on both primary and secondary data.
The sales history helps to analyze the current state of the
organizational growth. Comment Cards are used to analyze the
customer satisfaction about the products and services of Hardees.
Employee feedback is the process which is also followed by the
management of Hardees to know about the behaviors of employees
towards their job and responsibilities.
By using all these monitoring activities Hardees try hard to control
over the behavior of its employees and try to satisfy the customers
as well.

Contingency Plans
Hardees have also given importance towards the alternative
strategies and contingency plans in case they might get fail to
achieve their objective through regular activities.
For every activity happening in the kitchen Hardees has arranged the
backup plan e.g., it has 4 extra Char Broiler machines.
In case when there is more demand and less capacity, Hardees open
its extra counters and try hard to make the space for the customers.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)

@ HARDEES
CRM is the process through which companies create
relationships with the customers and its the process that
turns customer data into customer loyalty.
Hardees should make the basic four steps to be followed for
creating good relationship with customers and help develop
and target their proper customers.
These steps are following:
Collecting Customers Data
Analyzing Customers Data and Identifying Target customers
Developing CRM programs
Implementing CRM programs

Conclusion
Hardees is a world wide renowned brand in fast food industry. No
doubt its just a status symbol of the elite class but still it has
contributed in developing the consumers attraction towards fast
food industry. I came to know that Hardee's is out of the reach of
public because of its prices but customers are attracted due to the
quality being provided. It has build a strong good will because of its
environment & product range. Considering the overall portfolio of
Hardee's, I have found it to be perfect. All the operation & all the
matters relating to product quality are quite complete but still
Hardee's need to keep an eye on its competitors. Only then it can
have its brand worth maintained & also to prove itself a key
building blocks in consumer attraction towards fast food. If we talk
about the internal operations, they are also so much strong that
there are no complaints found for late order placement or about
the environment, these have also proved key symbols of consumer
attraction & consumer satisfaction.